First regular season road trip, PLUS Jon cooks ...
Since I last wrote, I've been to Costa Rica with RBG and Corpus Christi, Orlando, Ft. Lauderdale, and Atlanta for work. They all had their own bits of drama, but since the stats don't count until the regular season, I'm going to start my 2011 blogging with our first trip of the regular season to Seattle this week.
Let's start with the flight. I don't personally partake in Twitter, but I use it so much for work that I've started thinking in Twitter phrases from time to time. Not a fun realization and not something I'm especially proud of, BUT it's great for a little snarky humor. This example may or may not have anything to do with my situation on Thursday afternoon, but here's what an account called NotYardley Tweeted:
Once in Seattle, I put on the two different jackets I had brought with me and tried to adjust. The HIGH in Seattle was supposed to be about 60 degrees. The LOW in Houston that day was 64, I think. 'Nough said. It was more refreshing than bothersome, though. Did make me appreciate Houston.
We got to the hotel only about an hour before I was supposed to meet Berg and Ferg for dessert, so I hustled to the Cheesecake Factory to squeeze in dinner beforehand. Not surprisingly, about half the team was there in various groups, and I ended up sitting at the bar with two of our midfielders watching basketball. Needless to say, when my friends arrived, I took a bit of ribbing about ditching the guys.
As always, it was great to see the happy couple (coming up on their six-year anniversary - how time flies!) and we caught up on each other's lives and talked plenty of about college people we know and what they're up to. Out of necessity, this was a bit shorter than some of our other visits, but we got caught up.
On Friday, I woke up earlier than I wanted - love that Pacific Time Zone - and did some early morning work before getting up and going across the street for a bagel. Who did I run into but our head coach, so I sat with him and half-read the newspaper while he half-worked on the crossword puzzle, the other half of our attention being devoted to non-soccer conversation.
The team walk was a busy one, because I had set up about five different interviews and several people from the television crew were on hand, so we spent most of the time helping other people talk to our players. That left me without a pregame interview - mostly because I put off asking until it was too late - which put me in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day.
As usual, I went over early to the stadium, from which it is always a joy to broadcast. The ISDN line is always perfectly set up and easy to use, the vantage point is terrific, and the crowd noise is easy to pick up. Even my flaky machine was 2-for-2 in booting up to the correct menu. Amazing!
The game itself was tense and dramatic, since we were outshot 26-6, but I mostly kept it together and didn't openly campaign for calls from the refs or anything. I did call it "ridiculous" when an additional 45 seconds were added to the first half so Seattle could counter-attack. In the end, the 1-1 tie was bittersweet for us, but ... if you had offered it to me beforehand I would have accepted in a heartbeat.
Back at the hotel, I rushed to get basic info on the website - JK was watching NCAA bball so I was on my own for the night - then rushed to scarf down dinner before returning to work until the wee hours of the morning in Seattle, which meant it was really late in Houston. Good coverage, though, in my opinion, so well worth it.
Saturday was a travel day, leaving the hotel at 9 a.m. and not getting back to my house until 6:15 p.m. In between, I discussed the game with a lot of staff/players, convinced a Quizno's employee to serve me breakfast five minutes past the appointed time, traded a first class seat for a middle seat (albeit in an exit row), and listened to almost the entire broadcast.
All in all, not a bad trip.
Now, about that cooking ... I felt like trying something different today, so I searched through the cookbook my parents got me several years back. Everything was so hard! It all seemed to take a lot of ingredients (many of which I did not have) or a lot of prep time or both. I finally settled on a farmer's casserole, got the necessary ingredients on an afternoon shopping trip, and started cooking after the last basketball game ended.
It actually went OK. Figuring out how to get the frozen hash browns out of one large clump was actually one of the harder parts. I cried some tears while chopping onions, couldn't find a 1/8-teaspoon measuring spoon, and fudged a few ingredients, but that's just how I roll. I know my reputation precedes me, but it all happened and seemed to be edible.
Somebody (well, actually, many people) once made fun of me because the vast majority of my food fell into one beige-ish color range (pasta, cheerios, eggs, etc.).
This definitely fit that bill, but with a little salt it was tasty enough and did the trick. Hopefully there will be a few more recipe adventures to come.
Let's start with the flight. I don't personally partake in Twitter, but I use it so much for work that I've started thinking in Twitter phrases from time to time. Not a fun realization and not something I'm especially proud of, BUT it's great for a little snarky humor. This example may or may not have anything to do with my situation on Thursday afternoon, but here's what an account called NotYardley Tweeted:
Once in Seattle, I put on the two different jackets I had brought with me and tried to adjust. The HIGH in Seattle was supposed to be about 60 degrees. The LOW in Houston that day was 64, I think. 'Nough said. It was more refreshing than bothersome, though. Did make me appreciate Houston.
We got to the hotel only about an hour before I was supposed to meet Berg and Ferg for dessert, so I hustled to the Cheesecake Factory to squeeze in dinner beforehand. Not surprisingly, about half the team was there in various groups, and I ended up sitting at the bar with two of our midfielders watching basketball. Needless to say, when my friends arrived, I took a bit of ribbing about ditching the guys.
As always, it was great to see the happy couple (coming up on their six-year anniversary - how time flies!) and we caught up on each other's lives and talked plenty of about college people we know and what they're up to. Out of necessity, this was a bit shorter than some of our other visits, but we got caught up.
On Friday, I woke up earlier than I wanted - love that Pacific Time Zone - and did some early morning work before getting up and going across the street for a bagel. Who did I run into but our head coach, so I sat with him and half-read the newspaper while he half-worked on the crossword puzzle, the other half of our attention being devoted to non-soccer conversation.
The team walk was a busy one, because I had set up about five different interviews and several people from the television crew were on hand, so we spent most of the time helping other people talk to our players. That left me without a pregame interview - mostly because I put off asking until it was too late - which put me in a bit of a funk for the rest of the day.
As usual, I went over early to the stadium, from which it is always a joy to broadcast. The ISDN line is always perfectly set up and easy to use, the vantage point is terrific, and the crowd noise is easy to pick up. Even my flaky machine was 2-for-2 in booting up to the correct menu. Amazing!The game itself was tense and dramatic, since we were outshot 26-6, but I mostly kept it together and didn't openly campaign for calls from the refs or anything. I did call it "ridiculous" when an additional 45 seconds were added to the first half so Seattle could counter-attack. In the end, the 1-1 tie was bittersweet for us, but ... if you had offered it to me beforehand I would have accepted in a heartbeat.
Back at the hotel, I rushed to get basic info on the website - JK was watching NCAA bball so I was on my own for the night - then rushed to scarf down dinner before returning to work until the wee hours of the morning in Seattle, which meant it was really late in Houston. Good coverage, though, in my opinion, so well worth it.
Saturday was a travel day, leaving the hotel at 9 a.m. and not getting back to my house until 6:15 p.m. In between, I discussed the game with a lot of staff/players, convinced a Quizno's employee to serve me breakfast five minutes past the appointed time, traded a first class seat for a middle seat (albeit in an exit row), and listened to almost the entire broadcast.
All in all, not a bad trip.
Now, about that cooking ... I felt like trying something different today, so I searched through the cookbook my parents got me several years back. Everything was so hard! It all seemed to take a lot of ingredients (many of which I did not have) or a lot of prep time or both. I finally settled on a farmer's casserole, got the necessary ingredients on an afternoon shopping trip, and started cooking after the last basketball game ended.
It actually went OK. Figuring out how to get the frozen hash browns out of one large clump was actually one of the harder parts. I cried some tears while chopping onions, couldn't find a 1/8-teaspoon measuring spoon, and fudged a few ingredients, but that's just how I roll. I know my reputation precedes me, but it all happened and seemed to be edible.Somebody (well, actually, many people) once made fun of me because the vast majority of my food fell into one beige-ish color range (pasta, cheerios, eggs, etc.).
This definitely fit that bill, but with a little salt it was tasty enough and did the trick. Hopefully there will be a few more recipe adventures to come.
posted by Jon at
20:35
1 Comments:
You cook??
By
Anonymous, at 6:06 PM
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